Photo : Collected
The government has extended the deadline for Hajj registration till February 6 due to poor response in Hajj registration. The Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a fresh notification in this regard on Friday. The deadline was extended following a special request by the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) and intended Hajj pilgrims.
Earlier, the ministry extended the time from January 25 to February 1.
Despite extending the deadline in the third phase, the Hajj pilgrims did not respond to the Hajj registration in the current season under the government and private management.
The hajj registration started on November 15 and continued till December 10. The ministry later extended the deadline until December 31.
Despite a very poor response, the ministry later extended the time until January 18.
According to the agreement between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, a total of 127,298 Bangladeshis got the opportunity to perform hajj this year.
Leaders of HAAB said despite huge interest, people are not completing hajj registration due to the high cost of hajj packages this year.
This year, two Hajj packages have been fixed under government management, with the lowest package priced at Tk5,78,840 and the special package at Tk9,36,320. Meanwhile, the two packages under private management are priced at Tk5,89,800 and Tk8,28,818, respectively. Compared to last year, the cost of the lowest package has seen a reduction of Tk1,04,160.
However, despite this reduction, the response has been notably lower than in the previous year, echoing a trend observed in 2023 when 3,500 registrations remained vacant against the quota.
This year, hajj will be held on June 16 depending on the sighting of the moon.
Messenger/Shahed
